The Whispers "Rock Steady", was this created on a workstation or with real people playing real synths.

the term workstation wasn't really commonly used untill the Korg M1. It was a sampling digital synthesizer with built-in multi-track sequencing. But it's unlikely that's what they used. Stuff made with Synclaviers and Fairlights have this hard-to-define quality that you can just guess sometimes...